Patriots open Zone tourney todayThe Russellville American Legion Post 20 Patriots will play Conway on Friday in the first round of the Zone Tournament at 4 p.m. today in Cabot. Russellville (11-6, 5-3 Zone Three) defeated Conway 10-2 on Monday its final game of the regular season — but Patriots head coach Zach Hettinga isn’t resting easy. Conway defeated Post 20 4-3 earlier this year, and Hettinga described it as being one of the better teams in the tournament. “I’m not sure...

Patriots top Conway, win districtThe Russellville American Legion Post 20 Patriots won the district title on Monday with a 10-2 win over Conway at Tech Field. “That means we will be the No. 2 seed in the Zone Tournament behind Fort Smith,” Post 20 head coach Zach Hettinga said. The Zone Tournament, which combines the Patriots’ district with one from Northwest Arkansas, will begin on Friday in Cabot. Russellville (11-6, 5-3 Zone Three) scored seven runs in the bottom of the fi...

Cyclones football boosters to host Glow Run 5KThe Russellville Cyclones Football Booster Club will light up the evening with the third-annual Russellville Football Glo Run 5K on Aug. 5 to help raise money to support the Cyclones. Gina Skelton, who as a class representative for the the booster club, said the project began two years ago as a way to feed players before home games. “We started doing it so they wouldn’t be hungry before a game,” she said. “Games start at 5:30 or 5 p.m. and the...

Dickerson inducted into Hall of FameLITTLE ROCK — Former Russellville athletic director Jim Dickerson was inducted into the Arkansas High School Athletic Administrators Association (AHSAAA) Hall of Fame on Friday at the Hot Springs Convention Center. “It is a fantastic honor to be included with all the guys that have gone before and all the things they have done in getting the AHSAAA started through the years. Dickerson worked for the Russellville School District (RSD) from 1998...

American Legion extends streak to fourJACKSONVILLE — Mark Moyer struck out 15 during the Russellville American Legion Post 20 Patriots fourth-straight win on Tuesday during a 7-1 romp over Jacksonville at Dupree Park. Russellville (9-5) trailed 1-0 heading into the fourth inning but scored three runs to take the lead. Post 20 added four runs in the top of the seventh and held Jacksonville scoreless in the bottom of the inning to set the final score. "We're getting more respectable...

Dead period ends, teams resume playFootball programs across the state returned to the practice field on Monday after a two-week Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) enforced break known as “dead period.” During dead period, coaches are not allowed to conduct team practices, nor are they allowed to have contact at all with students. Clarksville head coach Eli Cranor described the first week back from break as “a baptism by fire” for the Panthers football players. “We probably f...

The mysterious ‘R’ Club inquiryWhen I told my coworker, Ryan Smith, that I was going to spend some time in the morgue, he jumped out of his seat. "The morgue? Like, dead bodies?" "More like dead newspapers," I replied. Just through the front entrance, in a room behind the glowing green "The Courier" sign, are thousands of old newspapers, bound together and dusty like ancient tomes. We delve into this archive from time to time when we want to run an old photograph. This is w...

Duggers win High School Bass OpenJake and Josh Dugger spend a lot of time together. The twins can be found on the field with the Pottsville Apaches football team or on the court with the basketball team. But their favorite place to be found is on the water with rods, reels and lures, fishing for bass. The sport is more than a hobby for the brothers — it’s something they hope to do for the rest of their lives. They began fishing competitively with the River Valley Youth Fishin...

Post 20 falls to Morrilton, 4-1The Russellville Post 20 American Legion baseball team lost to Morrilton 4-1 on Monday at Tech Field. Russellville (2-4) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning but gave up four unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth-and sixth innings during the loss. "Morrilton is a good group," Post 20 head coach Zach Hettinga said. "They just beat us. Our biggest problem right now has just been getting games in. I mean, we haven't played a game in two week...

A Cyclone legend rememberedThe decade of the 1930s was a tough period for America as it struggled through the Great Depression. But the rough economic times, made even rougher by an extended drought that covered much of the western half of the country, in turn produced some of the best football players of any era. One such player was Russellville’s Firmon Woodson Bynum who would have turned 99 on Aug. 1. The son of a coal miner, Firmon Bynum grew up working in the mines...

RHS players thrive in All-Star contestRussellville Lady Cyclones head volleyball coach Cindy Jones has been busy. Last week, Russellville hosted a youth volleyball camp inside Cyclone Gymnasium. Jones attended the Arkansas Democrat Gazette’s All-Prep’s banquet on Saturday, before watching two of her players in the 2015 Senior All-Star game in Conway on Wednesday. Jones followed that by speaking during a coaching clinic in Morrilton on Thursday. “It’s been very busy,” she said. “Bu...

Local youth spend days playing corkballGrant Payne took a quick step toward an incoming pitch and sent it sailing outside the third-base line, deep in the outfield. "Foul ball," someone called. "It went blackberry pickin'," another said. Payne is one of several boys who meet daily to play a version of corkball on a small baseball diamond on Marina Way in Russellville. "Backberry pickin" is what they've come to call a foul ball on account of the blackberry bushes that grow past the ...

Cyclones work hard as summer progresses You can forget the lazy days of summer if you’re a Cyclones football player — you get two weeks during the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) enforced “dead period,” but beyond that summer belongs to football. For Russellville, it’s a chance to get stronger. First-year head coach Billy Dawson said the players are still getting used to a few changes, but they’ve grown a lot in the offseason. “Summer is always about getting stronger,” he said...

State MVP Allen to play soccer at WWURussellville High School graduate Taylor Allen earned a Class 6A State Tournament MVP nod after scoring both Russellville’s goals during the Cyclones’ 2-1 state championship victory over the Siloam Springs Panthers on May 23 at Razorback Field. But Allen said he’s “pretty much” over it. He’s ready to move on to the next phase of his life — college, specifically, over 2,000 miles away at Western Washington University (WWU). His goals in Russell...

Barker scores Barker during Post 20 winCABOT — Jacob Barker’s RBI double to score his younger brother Joel Barker gave the Russellville American Legion Post 20 Patriots the go-ahead run in the ninth inning of their 7-3 win over Cabot on Tuesday. The game, which was scheduled for seven innings, was pushed to nine innings when Barker again scored Barker to tie the game at 3. The win was the Patriots’ second straight, after opening the season 1-2. “We’re starting to get a little chemi...

Cyclones hire two new coachesThe Russellville School Board called a special meeting Tuesday and hired two new coaches — one of which should be quite a familiar name to longtime Cyclones baseball fans. The school board voted to hire Will McCrotty as head baseball coach and Matt Hall as head basketball coach. McCrotty is the son of Denny McCrotty, who coached the Cyclones baseball team throughout the 1980s. Denny is credited for restarting the Russellville baseball program ...

RHS volleyball says goodbye to ‘biggest fan’There’ll be an empty seat inside Russellville High School’s new gymnasium when the Lady Cyclones volleyball team embarks on their 2015 season — one that can’t properly be filled even if someone were to choose to sit in it. It’s the seat that Lady Cyclones head coach Cindy Jones’ mother, Shirley Helton, has sat in since 2000. At the old gymnasium it was somewhere behind the Lady Cyclones bench and the scorekeepers’ table. Helton died on June 3,...

In Their Voice: Kindrick reflects on senior year, future at Alabama“God has a plan. God has a plan.” Those are the words people kept telling me, and I kept reminding myself my senior year. With plans of returning to the Class 6A state softball finals and having a senior softball season everyone always hopes for, a quick injury can change things real quick. Our softball season begins when it’s football season. We all held high expectations of the season and were working day-in and day-out to reach our dreams. ...